The Sneeze
by LuckyBachi
Summary: Natsu and Happy visit Lucy while she's writing.


'That was exactly lik-'

The sentence stopped there, the pencil rough on the paper as Lucy groaned loudly, her arms swinging above her head up in irritation.

It was often that writers block seemed to wriggle its way into that blonde head of hers on her days off. She swung the chair around as she slumped back into the padded metal headrest, a pain searing through her back as she did it a little too forcefully.

It wasn't long however, until she quickly stopped her grunts of agitation; spotting a blue cat sprawled across her bed accompanied by an all too familiar pink haired dragon slayer who was calming making his entry through the window.

As usual he wore that laid back grin, glee sitting on his face all too well.

Honestly, she didn't mind him being here, particularly when she was stuck in a rut on her book; but she had to finish the chapter at least, she didn't have time to mess around.

"What are you doing here?!" Lucy grumbled, getting up to slam the window shut, outside was a dusky blue as night was beginning to settle in.

"We found a sweet job-" Natsu started, his cherry pink hair bouncing as he landed on Lucy's carpet, seating himself comfily in from of her; his fingers producing a sheet of folded parchment.

"Aye; perfect for the team!" Happy beamed; a little too... Well, blatantly put- happy. How long had they been looking at the board, by the look of the lack of sun, she assumed it was around 6pm.

Admittedly, they had been on quite a few jobs lately and she was glad; not only was work steady, but she also got a lot of time spent with Natsu and his exceed; with the exception of Wendy, Erza and Gray now and then, but they tended to only come on heavier loaded missions.

So it was alright that she could skip this one out, she rested both her elbows in her lap and propped her head up.

"Thanks guys, but I should really finish this chapter." She said apologetically, watching their eyebrows raise.

"You ain't even gonna listen to the request?"

"Not right now, Natsu."

Her tone like a parent to the boy, letting him know she simply didn't have time, no matter how much fun was sitting on the table.

"But you'll really like it! We can wait. You can read it after you finish your chapter."

She glanced back at him as he tossed her a baring smile, those sharp teeth rimmed with both innocence and defiance; but as always, he meant no real harm.

She sighed loudly, "You're not going to leave until I say yes are you?"

Somehow his grin got wider, "If that's what it takes."

"Aye! This one was really made for the team!"

"Ah! Fine!" She growled, her tone snappy but in a playful manner.

She could never stay really mad at Natsu and Happy, after all, they were what the cat said: A team. And by the time this chapter was finished, she knew she'd want to get out of the house.

"Just keep quiet if you're going to sit there."

With a slight pout, she ripped her jacket off the bed; feeling the eyes that were now on her as she tugged the red sleeves over her slender arms.

Back to the paper it was as she spun around on her chair to lean across the desk, a rampant excitement as she suddenly felt a little more motivated to finish.

Natsu often had that effect on her, and she had to admit it wasn't a bad thing. He had this aura about him, that always kept her positive. This is how she began to write, letting the words fall from her palm into the pen, etching their way onto the page like icing to the cake.

Though it wasn't long till that idea quickly faded and she had to cock her head back in the most demeaning manner.

"Don't touch my stuff!" She growled, watching with wide eyes as the cat tangled himself up in her washing and the pink haired boy had a ribbon tangled in his hands.

They froze as if caught at the scene; both of them holding their hands up in the air like surrender.

"Aye."

They both nodded; placing back what they held as she once again returned to the work she had started.

They could definitely be a pain, but perhaps that was why she now considered them family. There was nothing they could do now that could possibly frustrate her enough to really kick them out. Not these days. After all, they had been through a lot. It would be a waste to get rid of them, particularly when their team work had-

Very slowly, the blonde turned her head; two big beady eyes was all she met with as she held back the temptation to scream her lungs out; both of the boys had settled their selves looking right over her shoulder; staring as she wrote.

"GAH! SERIOUSLY! GIVE ME SOME SPACE!" She barked, waving her arms around as they both jumped back onto her bed in a sitting position, playing the innocent card.

"Can't you two be normal for two seconds?!"

"Aye sir." They both said in unison; her eyes flicking from the dragon slayer to the cat.

"Good."

She disliked how childishly easy they were getting away with it. Finally she swung back again, her eyes on the page as she only saw words that no longer made sense.

Perhaps her characters were too bland, perhaps they needed to be more childish like the two maniacs she had sitting her bed. That's right. Maybe she was just lacking something, something playful and energetic. Someone heroic yet ready to make someone smile at the worst of moments. Someone to pick her up when things got tough, or who could express themselves so easily by not even saying a single word.

She plucked a rubber from her desk drawer, letting it rub wildly across the page as she decided it was time to start again. After all, she was going to get nowhere with characters so dull. Maybe it would be better just to ignore the chapter, do it when they got back from their latest job, whatever that was. It was often trips that gave you inspiration, but she knew the real inspiration came from the things and people you know.

She was about to finish up and just tell the boys they were fine to go if they were ready, before she was stopped by a petitie sneeze, something quite like a puppy or a kitten. She glanced back, Natsu who had now put himself into a lying position on her bed wore a tired look and Happy still sat at the edge of the blanket, eyes glued to a pattern on the wall.

"Aw! Happy that was adorable." Lucy grinned, her eyebrows raising as she couldn't stop herself from noticing simply how cute that sneeze was. It wasn't often she though of Happy being an actual cat, but it was times like these she remembered.

"Aye."

Happy's eyes flicked to the blonde with a serious expression.

"That wasn't me."

"Eh? Then who was it-"

Obviously it could have been the only other person in the room, and her grin became something a little more smug.

Seriously?

She really had just heard a dragon slayer sneeze and it sundered more like a hamster coughing?

Something so tiny and cute coming from a boy with pink hair?

She couldn't help but laugh just a bit before finally asking the culprit herself.

"Natsu."

"Eh?"

"Was that you?"

"Was what me?" He asked, clearly not noticing a problem, his eyes today a slight green colour as they met with hers.

"Did you sneeze?"

"Yeah… why?"

"O-oh- it was just so-"

Her lips pressed together, she would be lying if she said she didn't feel some kind of amusement. It had just sidetracked her so well after all, she just wanted to hear it again.

"So what?"

"O-oh, nothing." Lucy giggled, shaking the page one last time.

"Let's just go. I can work on this later." She added.

"Really?" He shot up, an excited look on his face.

"Yeah," Her smile softened now, a real genuine smile. "I can work on this later."

"Oh cool!"

Yanking the request back out of his pocket, he passed it over to her without hesitation.

Lucy adored writing, with all her heart.

She had words that she could use to create a personality, something that was difficult to do in the real world. It was never a surprise when you were the creator of a person, she would know what all their actions were, all their emotions.

She knew the characters like they were her own, but at the end of the day she would never get to experience them like the other characters in the book could. And she would never need to, when she had freaks like these in her life. There was nothing that made her more grateful than to have two of the most amazing friends by her side, with a whole family too.

She smiled at Natsu, glad to see how his excitement came back, just like he had been when he had first gotten here.

There was nothing she would want to change.

Okay.

Maybe one thing…

As her eyes dropped down to read the first line of the request.

'Blonde wanted-'

"_NATSU-_"


End file.
